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Ian Murdock leaves Linux Foundation

Ian Murdock has announced that he will leave the Linux Foundation. His new employer will be Sun. However, Murdock will continue to be the chair of LSB.

Ian explains the reason to join Sun with an attraction the company always had for him. His new position is connected with System Platform Strategy:

I’m not saying much about what I’ll be doing yet, but you can probably guess from my background and earlier writings that I’ll be advocating that Solaris needs to close the usability gap with Linux to be competitive; that while as I believe Solaris needs to change in some ways, I also believe deeply in the importance of backward compatibility; and that even with Solaris front and center, I’m pretty strongly of the opinion that Linux needs to play a clearer role in the platform strategy.

The question is now how this will fit together with Linux and the LSB efforts in general. I really hope that Ian continues to push forward a way to solve the Linux software issue.
Also, there is the question how Solaris fits in – Solaris is a direct competitor to Linux. Sure, both life in a happy cooperative but also competitive way next to each other, but it is still something else when you are involved in both projects actively. The question is if Ian finds a way to speak and work for both.

All the best from me, good luck at Sun, but keep an eye on the package issues…